The crops are beginning to change, harvest preparations are underway, school is back in session, and local businesses continue opening their doors each morning. For many rural Iowans, Labor Day isn’t necessarily a day when all the work stops. Instead, it gives us an opportunity to recognize the people behind that work.
Here in Calhoun County, hard work is simply part of who we are.
You see it in the farmer checking fields before sunrise, the employee starting an early shift, the teacher preparing a classroom, the healthcare professional caring for a neighbor, the truck driver traveling Highway 20, the contractor finishing a job, and the small-business owner turning on the lights each morning.
You also see it in the people who volunteer at community celebrations, coach our kids, serve on local boards, organize fundraisers and quietly step forward when a neighbor needs help. In rural Iowa, work, community and service have always been connected.
I’ve had the opportunity to talk a lot about Calhoun County over the past few years—and I’m always happy to do it. During a recent podcast, I was asked to name my favorite place in Calhoun County. My answer was pretty simple: my home at South Twin Lake.
After nearly 40 years of calling Calhoun County home, I still believe my favorite place to be is home—right here in Calhoun County.
Maybe that’s part of what Grow Here. means to me.
Growing here isn’t only about attracting a new business, creating jobs or building new housing—although all of those things are important. It’s also about building a life. Raising a family. Growing a career or a business. Getting involved. Making friendships. Investing in your community. And, eventually, realizing that somewhere along the way, this place became your place.
When the workday is finished, we also have some pretty wonderful places to play—a sunset at Twin Lakes, an evening in one of our parks, a Friday night football game, a community celebration, dinner at a local restaurant or simply sitting outside at the end of a long Iowa day.
That’s a quality of life worth protecting, promoting and sharing.
This Labor Day, we celebrate the generations of hardworking rural Iowans who built Calhoun County and those who continue that work today.
Because rural Iowa doesn’t just happen.
It is planted, built, taught, cared for, repaired, created, volunteered for and invested in—every single day.
To everyone who has chosen to live here, work here, build a business here, raise a family here or return home to Calhoun County: thank you.
Work Here. Live Here. Play Here. Grow Here.
And from someone who has had the privilege of calling Calhoun County home for a very long time, I can tell you—there really is no place I’d rather be.
Happy Labor Day from Calhoun County, Iowa.
written by Theresa Hildreth